The present invention relates generally to explosives, pyrotechnics and detonators, and more specifically to a detonation system which includes one or more auxiliary booster charges to enhance the ignition of a main charge by amplifying the detonation wave of an exploding booster charge.
Since the time of Nobel, great progress has been made in the development of explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics. Tomorrow the arsenal of the U.S. Air Force will include insensitive high explosives (IHE) as part of its tactical weaponry.
The Mark-80 series of bombs is an example of a proposed insensitive high explosive device. Its main charge, currently composed of tritonal, will be replaced by an insensitive high explosive having a relatively high threshold of shock needed to ignite it. Such explosives rely on an initial detonation of a booster charge to ignite the main charge.
When the booster of a high explosive bomb is detonated, the booster charge is transformed in less than 0.0002 second to a very hot gas. This gas momentarily occupies only the volume of the solid explosive, and consequently develops enormous pressure (about 100 tons per square inches for TNT). The gases expand in a detonation wave which is intended to ignite the IHE main charge of the explosive.
While the system of detonation described above is excellent in principle, the standard booster charge alone has not been a reliable means of initiating a steady state detonation of an insensitive high explosive main charge.
From the foregoing discussion, it is apparent that there currently exists the need for an explosive booster system which initiates steady state detonation in relatively insensitive explosives. The present invention is intended to satisfy that need.